>> phillips: 39x32. hi, welcome to "the american woodshop." i'm scott phillips, and today's show is all about showing you how to make your own custom frames. compound mitered cuts -- it's a breeze. join us. learn our secrets. >> announcer: "the american woodshop," with scott phillips is brought to you by... >> delta -- the heart of woodworking for over 85 years. porter-cable -- the soul of woodworking for over 100 years. >> woodcraft -- since 1928

providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen. woodcraft -- helping you make wood work. >> gorilla glue -- for the toughest jobs on planet earth. >> phillips: behind me, you can see i'm a creek without a paddle. look at these three walls right here. well, the space varies dramatically. and for this space to work, i need three mirrors to match the cabinets below that are walnut and have a classic, old look to it. come with me. i'll show you how to cut this egg-and-dart molding and create your own custom frame, whatever the size. let's head to the woodshop. any good frame on a mirror or a picture will have a mitered angle, and the way to cut it is with a miter saw. but first, before you start cutting, make sure that the fence is lined up all the way across. another thing is the table has to be flat.

if it's not flat across, it will raise the angle when you cut and that will effectively change the mitered angle. now, i'll set this straightedge out of the way. this is all tuned up. the first thing that we're going to do -- to cut the crown molding. and that's what this trim is. it's crown molding that's at a standard angle. it's 52 degrees on the top edge. this is where the egg-and-dart pattern is -- classic pattern. and then on the back edge, it's 38 degrees. now, a miter saw -- a good one -- will come with two key things. right back here you can see a little diamond on there. well, that diamond, when you tilt this down, that's the bevel angle that i want to lock this saw at to make a simple, compound cut. the other angle -- and that angle right there is 33.86 degrees, so don't try to find it. just set it at the diamond. and then over here, when i swing

this over, it clic in. listen. [ click ] there's a positive stop right there, and i lock it right in. and that's 31.62 degrees... for typical crown molding. now, why are we using crown? well, you're going to see when we cut this out. look at how this corner comes together. it's very beautiful, very elegant. and that looks complex because that's a compound angle, and that springs the frame away from the wall. well, that's what i want. well, look at this. we'll take the egg-and-dart crown molding, and we will slide it right on down here, with everything locked exactly the way i just explained, and we'll make a miter cut. a couple safety tips -- make sure you wear your safety glasses, safety protection on the hearing. always read, understand, and follow the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your woodshop. work safely and stay alert.

now, when i make this cut, see how my hand is locked down to the table and i press that piece against the fence? now watch the cut. this is very important how i do this. when i bring that blade down, i want it to split one of those eggs, just like that. and notice how i turned the saw off, let it come to a complete stop before i back out of the cut. that saves the cut, makes it perfect, but it's also for safety -- so it doesn't grab the blade and throw the scrap in a dangerous place. now, you think, "boy, i have to cut that other angle," right? "and it's complicated." no, not really. what you do now -- there's one part of that mitered angle that's beveled. now, i'm going to slide this all the way down here against my stop that's at 23 9/16. well, that doesn't do anything for me. i just have two parallel edges.

i need it to go this way. you just flip it over just like that. you don't change the saw setting. you flip it over and hold it securely down to the fence. notice how my fingers are locked to the fence and down to the table, and i make the cut. again, i don't move the workpiece or the blade up until everything is stopped. now, there's the short piece that i need. now, i need several of those, so i'll go ahead and make those right now. but remember, i first have to make this cut by splitting one of the eggs so when the corners mate together it is a match. let it come to a stop. don't reach in there until that comes to a stop. and i just flip it over, and i make a total of six workpieces this way. hold that flat, repeat the process.

for the long workpiece, the inside length is 29 1/2 inches and i just have a line marked on the table. clamp that in place. that's my stop. and what i'll do is take this long workpiece and cut those six identical long pieces through the egg, just as before. i haven't changed a thing, but this can be deceptive. as you look at this workpiece, it kind of looks like i have it up at an angle. i don't. i have the wide flat of that molding flat to the table when i cut it. you'll see some people take this and spring it up at an angle and cut it. i don't like to do that. that's dangerous, in my mind. the other thing down here -- you can see i have my six short workpieces. i always want to set those safely out of the way. lock that up behind the table so nothing can be in the way as i make the cuts.

so i split that egg, holding it flat to the table, hand brace down. and it has built-in dust collection, which is really good. so that's one part of the cut. i flip it over, swing it up to the stop. and now i'll cut the six long workpieces just by holding the workpiece flat to the table. i let the bevel and thmiter do the work. repeat this process until you have six long workpieces, as well. okay, set that safely behind the fence here. this is so easy when you have a good setup like this. now that i have all the long and short workpieces for that mitered corner cut, i've done test samples to get the color i nt. remember, i'm matching that walnut base, and this color

looks really good. it's a spray walnut stain with both pigments and dyes. and once i get this all done outside -- and why i like a spray is it really gets into that carved detail very nicely. the wind's behind me. and i am wearing safety glasses with side shields, because that microspray could come up and coat my eyes, asell. i do like to work outside when i can because of ventilation. the trick is you havto have at least 65 degrees and a relative humidity between 40% and 60%. otherwise, you're better off doing it inside. so i'll get this all sprayed out, and then it's inside to learn how to glue the corners. no glue -- or excuse me -- no stain in this area, if at all avoidable, please. that could affect the glue up. once the stain has dried, it's one corner at a time. i use a sanding block get any

of that excess stain off, like that. it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be dust-free when we do the next step, and that is we apply an excellent wood glue that, when it dries, it dries clear. you don't want a yellow glue here that dries yellow and leaves behind a nasty bead. now, it's very important, since this is end grain that i putting that on. that means the fibers of the wood that's running this way. and they're like tiny straws and it will really soak the glue in and starve the joint if you don't use an acid brush to brush that wood glue, or massage it, right into the pores of the wood. now, because i am going to get a little bit of squeeze out here i'll wipe it off with a rag. but since i've already stained it, the stain is in the wood and it will not make a blotchy

corner. of course, i'll put a good finish on this later. see my fancy jig here? it's just a square-cut board clamped down with a holdfast. and then back here, here's another piece that's... held in place. and when i bring this corner up on tt board, just li that, see how the corner mates and is nice and tight? and the other thing i like to do is use a rubber mallet and my body to hold this corner in place right there. get everything all lined up. it's not a matter of force to clamp that corner, 'cause i'm letting that angle do its work. if it's cut correctly, all i do right now is bring it flush right in here. and then i'll use a brad nailer to tack the corner together -- just like that. this an 18-gauge brad nailer. and once that draws that corner

tight, then i don't have any marring. because it's so small, i just fill that. and that's how i do all four corners. i'll rotate this around, get another one. and it's just that simple. sand it clean. you want to keep that sanding block flat, just like that. size the joint. add the glue. and then just repeat this process for all four corners. [ brad nailer firing ] if you look very closely, all the corners e nice and tight. i have a little bit of squeeze out there, and since it's going

to dry clear and i have it already stained, i just use an acid brush to brush that excess glue off while it's still damp and that's all there is to it. all four corners need to dry and once that happens, in two hours, then i'll flip it over and i'll show you how to trim out the back and put the mirror in. once the glue has dried, now i can do the trim on the back. now, look at this. this is a digital angle gauge. this trim piece, a quarter of an inch away from the edge and mitered on the end, wraps the entire case. now, what angle did i need to bevel that at in order to get a perfectly flat back? it says here 16 degrees. these are very handy tools to use when you're trimming things like this out. so now all the way around. i'm going to put in a total of four workpieces. and i cleaned up the back edge with a sanding block -- 100 grit -- before i glue these strips in.

and a quarter of an inch away from the edge, and right on that miter seam right there, i'm going to use a pin nailer. now, look very closely at this pin nailer. it has a safety ght here. that's pulled back, a quarter of an inch in. and when i fire this, look at that. that's tiny. you can barely see it. i'll bring that up -- a quarter inch all the way around -- and i'll nail this in. and this will hold the frame for the mirror, and the stock mirror is 24x30. and once i get this in all the way around, put the mirror down. once the mirror's in, i put the plywood back panel in. it matches it. and then that's just trimmed out with a one-inch strip of walnut that's countersunk and screwed in place. and then a french cleat goes on the top so that i can hang that on the bathroom wall. that's all there is to it. okay, everything's tightened up,

and that french cleat will hook on the wall, on an identical cleat. and i think you'll agree -- that's a good-looking mirror. very easy to do when you know the compound-cutting trick. and go to the website for all the angles and charts. now let's go do the install. if you look at the cleat on the back of the mirror, you can see the mate on the wall. it's just a mirror image, and they hook together in a way that makes the install go perfectly. egg-and-dart custom trim. mirrors or looking glasses -- you can't beat it in the bathroom. i bet suzy will like it. now let's go take a look at another looking glass that we'll make back at the woodshop. prior to about 1860, mrors were called looking glasses, because that's what you do with them -- you look at things. well, look at this beautiful chippendale mirror. it tells a story -- a very interesting story. when you go to buy antiques, i

want you to be very eptical. i want you to start looking for what is called a marriage. it's where something that looks a ttle bit out of place, like this bottom treatment to the frame, because the color is off ever so slightly, or the top pediment being just a little bit too good, because if this mirror was dated back to the 1760s of chippendale style, which this is, there should have been more damage to that. nothing can survive with all that scrolled tail without damage. so look at antiques with a critical eye. look for the color or the tina. if it's off a bit, chances are you don't have an authentic antique right there. so this chippendale frame is something that i conjured up. i married that and that together with an old frame to create an antique. suzy loves it. but you don't deceive anyone. and out of this, i'm going to head to the woodshop to show you all the tricks to make a beautiful chippendale-era mirror

together out of mahogany. let's head there now. a great friend of mine brian boggs, has a saying -- "if you can't outsmart a piece of wood, better give it up." well, here are all the tricks you need in order to create an antique masterpiece or a re-creation of one, like this chippendale mirror. whenever you have this very inicate scrollwork, you could use a coping saw or a fretsaw. but it's a whole lot easier to cut out these details by using a scrolling blade on the band saw. let's head over there right now and get started. before i use a band saw to scroll out the parts, a couple tips -- make your pattern, reduce it in size to fit the wood that you want, to match the chippendale frame, in this case. and then this paper pattern -- see how it sticks right on there? well, i like to use temporary-bond spray adhesive. i put it on the paern. let it dry f a minute. th put that on. that way, after i make the cuts, it'll peel right off. also, you can see this is

thicker than what i need. i'm acally cutting out two fleur-de-lis and using carpet-centered, pressure-sensitive tape to hold that together. it always has to be clamped together to hold it firm and tight. now, down here, you can see, for a smaller fleur-de-lis, i've done the same thing. and then down here, this is the base, with a beautiful scroll treatment ght there. that date backs to the 1760s for chippendale-style furniture. and then here's the top, or the pediment. that's the pattern, and this is on beautiful, beautiful mahogany. it's very dense wo. the denser the wood, the better here, 'cause it will hold the detail. now, this is a scrolling blade and it will get into those tight spots. here's the trick. these are cool blocks, above and below the table -- phenolic resin blocks that gently hold the blade. and i'll lower this so it's -- the guide blocks will control the blade, but it also protects my fingers. this is the guard.

and now i'll turn on the dust collector and make some cuts. whatever you do, wear safety glasses for this, and these are safety glasses. so the dust collector comes up and the first thing i'll do is cut off the sharp areas here. now, let me get started. notice how my hands are always to the table. now, as i go in, i just want to stay on the outside edge of that pattern line. and on a tight spot like this, i don't go into that cavity. i swing it out and around, staying on the outside edge. and once i get the basic shape roughed in, i'll go back in and do relief cuts into those sharp areas. that way, i never put the blade into a bind. remember what yogi berra said? when you come to a fork in the road, what do you do? well, you take it -- the same thing on a band saw.

when you come to a curve, take it. with that 1/8-inch, 14-t.p.i blade, youan do remarkable cuts on a band saw. i'll whittle this out, then work on the stake and also the castle. same way. all techniques apply. well, there you have it. watch that blade as it comes to a stop. and now to separate the two patterns, i just use a chisel on edge and gently prime apart. be careful of the delicate detail there. now, the other thing -- let me t rid of that scrap -- off -- then i'm going to do is cut out the base pattern right there and the top paern, using all the same techniques. with the blade off, you need to lower the guide-block assembly so it's as close to the two -- top of the workpieces as possible without having the two touch. so i'll just scroll this away. there is a way to do this entire piece on this machine.

turn on the dust collector, and away we go. all right! now, it's a good idea to wear a dust mask when you're in there tight, doing all those detailed cuts, 'cause mahogany can be nasty to breathe. so just work smart. use a good dust collector. see that hole in the center? now, here's a way to cut that. i like to use a drill press with a hole saw to drill the hole in the center that will eventually frame out that fleur-de-lis accent that also

needs to be carved. now, speaking of carving, i take all the workpieces over to the router table, and i'm using a 3/8-inch piloted ball-bearing bit in the table and a guide pin to profile the best face out. so that way, it saves a ton of time in carving. just make sure i use a push block to securely and safely make all those cuts. and once that's done, it's back to the workbench for some hand carving. well, power tools can only do so much, and a great set of carving chisels really will be the thing that brings the fleur-de-lis and the scroll accent to life. you just need to learn how to work with the grain and use sharp tools, and there you want to do downhill, just like that. and i'll bring that up and the same with the scroll pediment. but let's look over here. take a look at this -- the frame material. you can make your own framing.

you can cove it out with a special bit, cut the channel and that's all done at the router table. take a look. using the router table with the router fence and three bits, i can profile the molding. the o.g. cutter is used again to profile the inside edge all the way around the molding for the picture frame. now, here you can see a straight cutter, and i make two passes with the straight cutter on the inside edge, as well. i want a groove all the way around the frame to accept the glass and the plywood. and then this 3/4-inch-across bullnose, or roundnose, bit can be used in multiple passes to create the cove. in fact, if you move the fence you can make it as wide as you want. and that's the easy way to cut all the molding at the router table for either picture frames or, in this case, a mirror. now, you take that wide board that we routed at the router table, and you take a look at it. you notice all the details are on the edges, right?

and then the groove is left and right, as i flip this over. and so you always keep the board wide, profile it, and then you take it to the table saw after it's profiled for safe cuts that way. you cut the strips in half. that's 2 1/2 inches for the strips all the way around. and then you can use this little curved scraper to smooth out the ridges from that bullnose bit. and a little bit of sanding, and we have the mahogany frame. now, look at this. you see this? this is a pocket-screw corner that you just draw nice and tight. and to make those pocket screws, you do it in the short workpieces. let's see. you can see right here. i already have two that come all the way through. and let's do the other so you understand that technique right here. i bring it right up, clamp it in place, and now i use the drill and the stop a i drill the

pocket screws. once those are done, you know everything you need to know to make the frame. to sand all the parts down, i like to use a drill press with a flap-wheel sander on it -- 80 grit -- to just mellow out the edges and feather in the carving. and then a little bit of random orbital sanding and final hand sanding with 100, 150, and 220. then it's time for the shellacking. once i have all the parts sanded, i put two cleats on the back of the bottom and the pediment treatment, and that's just screwed onto the back of the frame. it's easier to do the shellac. this is a garnet sheac. you've seen me use this many times before. it's a wonderful, rich color and it really makes this look old, and it's a wonderful, safe finish to use. so i'll brush this out -- all-natural bristle. no drips, no runs, no errors. you can't beat a good shellac, as long ast's fresh. so i'll just get it all shellacked and screw it together, and we'll take a

finished look at the project. three coats of shellac dry, and i can fit that into the notches that i made on the top pediment. and if you look closely at this looking glass, well, i think you'll agree -- it's one for the ages. it looks old and rich. and that mahogany came from an old piece of furniture that was broken down. so you can recycle wood if you're careful about how you salvage that wood from old pieces. well, i really had fun with you today. next week on "the american woodshop," more classic furniture ideas. i hope you join us then. god bless you. >> announcer: "the american woodshop," with scott phillips is brought to you by... >> delta -- the heart of woodworking for over 85 years.

porter-cable -- the soul of woodworking for over 100 years. >> woodcraft -- since 1928 providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen. woodcraft -- helping you make wood work. gorilla glue -- for the toughest jobs on planet earth.

kevin: welcome back to "this old house" here in cambridge, massachusetts. today we'll warm up our house with some natural wood on the ceilings and on the floors. kevin: so what are we putting down? norm: well, this is solid maple, tongue and groove, prefinished with a very durable finish. that's what they use in bowling alleys. tom: it looks pretty bad right here. kevin: are you kidding me? norm: is this place really worth saving? richard: we can do better than this. roger: time to get to work. tom: nice and easy nice and easy, everybody together. kevin: oh, yeah. roger: the right plant in the right place. good. richard: it's state-of-the-art. norm: perfectly square. roger: all in all, a good day's work. norm: right here on "this old house." "do it yourself" doesn't have to mean "do it alone." at the home depot's how-to community you can watch videos read tips, and get advice from fellow doers.

we're proud to support "this old house" and doers everywhere. ♪ [ wind howling bird squawks ] [ thunder crashes, car alarm blares ] when the unexpected happens, state farm is there to help you get your old house to a better state. proud sponsor of "this old house." [ grunting ] man! what we need is some elbow grease. [ laughs ] yeah, you can -- are you kidding me? gmc -- lending "this old house" a helping hand since 2002. funded in part by lumber liquidators retailer of hardwood flooring. their wide selection includes bellawood prefinished, bamboo, laminate and vinyl plank flooring. lumber liquidators is proud to sponsor "this old house." norm: well, the exterior work on our cambridge project house is nearly complete and we've done a lot of work over the last few months. a

brand-new roof on the entire house. copper gutters with beautiful copper downspouts. and we spent a fair amount of time working on the brick foundation repointing it and stabilizing it. also, all brand-new windows. now, the house needed a paint job so it took a couple weeks to prep it and now you see the final colors. an off-white trim, black window sash, and a yellow body. now, the combination of those colors would be quite common in sweden so it goes right along with our homeowner's scandinavian theme and it's just a hint of what's going on inside, which is what kevin and tom are working on. the design aesthetic for this house is going to be a lot of white on white. we're going to have white walls with white ceilings. in the kitchen, we're going to have white cabinets, and there's even going to be white tile backsplash. so the thinking is, well let's warm it up in a couple key areas with some wood. so the island countertop is going to be wood, a hood over the stove is going to be trimmed out in wood, and we're thinking why

not put some wood on the ceiling so it's not all just plaster and to me, tommy it looks like you picked a bay window for the first spot to get that treatment. right, the bay windows on the first floor are going to have this right here. this is actually southern yellow pine with a six-inch face and it's tongue and groove. all right? now the trick to this is this is an old house. the bay is actually pretty crooked, all right? but the architect wants the boards on the ceiling to go in this direction and they want it to be tight to the ceiling and to the wall without any space because there's not going to be any molding. looking for that nice, sleek look so what am i thinking, some scribing of that board maybe? well, we could scribe it but i have to get both ends tight, and, like i said it's out of square it's out of -- everything's off. so what i'm going to do is i'm actually going to cut a notch right across the top on each side and then we can take the board and slide it into that groove. the painter will then come back, touch-up the wall,

because he has to do some touch-ups anyway. so what i'm going to use is this piece of 1 x 3 material. it's 3/4 of an inch thick, the same thickness as our ceiling. i'm going to just tack it up here against the strapping. what we'll do is we'll use this as our guide to run our saw. okay. so now i'm just going to follow along this with my oscillating saw. for our ceiling, we need a total of six boards that have to be all one piece, no joints, and we have to look for any imperfections to make sure we don't have any of those up there. try to avoid the knots if we can. let's see what we've

got here. 85 7/8. you got it. we're going to clear that knot, so... all right, mark that. see if we can get a length on that one. the center of my light is right there so i want to be from this edge 43 1/4. kevin: got it. okay, so now it's center of the light right here, 2 3/16 we will be... 13 inches out from the edge. all right, now this is our first board that will go against

the outside wall over the window. we'll match up our tongue and groove joints make it tight. make them even. okay. now i want to take those measurements that i took for the light that's in the middle of the ceiling there and i want to transfer those measurements from here out. that was 13 inches? yep. and 43 1/4. so, easier to cut the hole for the light down here than up on the ceiling right? absolutely. 43 1/4. now i'll set my compass in the center mark draw a circle. and we'll cut that out with our jigsaw.

all right, let's see how we did. place this end in our groove. now i slide it over just about halfway. now it's in on both sides. push it in. there it goes. look at that, tommy. perfect fit. once in a while, you get lucky. tom: i rip down the board wider than we need for our last piece. follow the wall with our scribes. i set my table saw on an angle and as i cut it, i'm going to weave the line on. now we'll let the painters touch up the wall and put the finish on the ceiling.

the entire third floor is dedicated to a master suite with a bedroom, a closet and a master bath that is really starting to shape up. we have got the floor tile down, this really vibrant blue and on the wall, we've got this sort of off-white subway tile, sort of a wainscot here, but all the way up the walls in the shower, and it's still going up, thanks to mark ferrante. rk, i love this tile. how are you? great. so what are we working with? we're working with an 8 x 24 glazed ceramic. see the lines in it? i do, very subtle. done with an ink-jet printer. seriously? glaze and all. so the glaze replaces the ink? yeah. i like that, very cool. so we've got it going up on the vanity wall all the way up? all the way up to the ceiling, except right here. what's going right there? well, we're going to put this -- excuse me. oh, there we go. an enamel mosaic. so, same tile that's down on the floor going up there. but, if you notice look how thin it is compared to the field tile. and

how do you handle that? so i have to pad out these walls here. okay, we have some more backer board to go up? yes, we do. i'm going to glue it with some thinset. so we've got a 1/2-inch notch there, 1/4-inch? it's...yeah, it's a 1/2-inch notch. 1/2-inch notch. here we go, so just right on the edge. yep. i also marked the board so i can put some screws in it. now we're skimming the board with thinset. look at that, kevin. oh, yeah. flush, perfectly flush. that's great. okay, here's number two. all right, you thinset i'll lay the tiling. okay.

that's it for the feature strip. and then what's next? now we're going to set the tile up top. so you can put the thinset right onto the plaster no need for a backer board? right, not a wet area. here's another one for an angle cut. yep, we're just going to take it from the bottom first, mark it. and we take the top measurement, it's 12 5/8. connect the dots and we'll cut it with a wet saw. that's a nice fit, huh? real nice fit. okay, there you go, mark. final

piece. nice. and another perfect fit. that is a great-looking wall. yes, it is. all right, and when do we grout? 24 hours from now. nice. all right, well, all the finishes are coming together, mark. thank you. you're welcome. well, our homeowners want to get a lot of use out of this deck up here on the third floor and, well, you can't blame them because, i mean, it's essentially an extension of the master bedroom so we've gone to great lengths to make this nice space. we actually tore off the old deck and then we lowered this one down so that there was just a small step from the master bedroom new door, new windows, and now it's sort of just sunk in here like a little crow's nest. we're got these two walls up so all we have to do

is install the railing but first, we've got to get the decking down and, tommy, we are using a cellular pvc on the decking. we've actually used pvc before. we use it a lot outside on trim work. fantastic product. right, but this is the first time we've actually put it down as a deck board. oftentimes, we're either using hardwood or composite where there's some wood flour in it, so pvc this is a first for us. it's the first. cellular pvc is great because it works like wood reacts like wood in some ways, but it doesn't rot like wood. love the sounds of that. all right, so we're just screwing this down, tommy? yep, screw it down right above the tongue. using a stainless steel screw here? stainless steel trim screws. so pretty much fastening the same way as we would if it were wood. well, if it was wood and we were using screws we'd have to pre-drill it first or we'd have to use nails. and it goes right in there no splitting.

we're actually going to glue the last two pieces in, so let me show you. here's a piece right here that's going to go in. that's our next piece. that'll be glued down? we're going to glue that one down. our last piece will have to be cut on an angle and we'll tilt it into position, and that'll be glued down. okay. now once we get the first piece in we have to work fast get the second one get that in right away. okay, there's one. all right, now we've got to tilt that second one in. a little tricky. tongue's in. okay. nice thing is just if we were tapping this on a piece of wood we'd probably dent the wood. all right, now before we even put the roof sheathing on, we had to put

this 4 x 4 in because we needed to attach it to the roof structure below. it has to be real strong. we also had to make sure that we flashed it because we don't want any water to enter the building. but it's not the finished look. we want to actually dress that up, and we want the railing system to be as maintenance-free as the deck, so we're back to pvc. right, this is a pvc railing system that requires no maintenance and that will slide right over that 4 x 4. all right, okay. now, what i did, we need a post on each side, but i didn't want a full post, so i decided to cut a post in half using one side against the house, putting it on a 2 x 4, making that really strong. down here, you could see that i have a pressure-treated 2 x 4 screwed to the wall, and now we're ready to install our railing system. pre-made railing, what is this some sort of a kit? well, it is a kit. all the holes are pre-drilled for the spacing of your balusters. all you need to do is cut the length and center the railing into that.

nice. now we've got to drop it down onto our brackets. nice. it's in. okay, good. all right, so we need a second railing section and then the kit obviously comes with a top cap? right, it comes with a top railing, but we're not going to use that because the homeowner wants something different, so i'm going to customize a cap that goes right over the railing and right over the wall. oh, so it's one uniform look i get it, all right. well, you know what, already looks good. down here on the first floor the plasterers have covered up all of the blue board with their final coat of plaster, and now that it's dried, norm, you are off to the races putting down our new wood floor. you guys don't waste any time. well, kevin, we're on a tight schedule. we've got to keep this job moving. so what are we putting down? well, this is solid maple, tongue and groove, prefinished with a very durable finish. and look how light color that wood is. i don't think we've ever put a floor down that's this light although we did just put that southern yellow pine accent up on the ceiling, so i guess this is a good compliment.

yeah, and it's also a good choice of wood, because maple is very hard. it'll be durable. that's what they use in bowling alleys. so, solid wood floor we're going to staple or nail it down, pretty standard practice. the one thing that catches my eye, though is that you guys have started right in the middle here which is not that standard. well, kevin, this is an old house and it's probably a little bit out of square, so if we were to start at this outside wall and start coming across, it's okay in this room but as it goes into that room, it could skew off, and tom felt if you're sitting at the island here and you look down that wall and you see a wedge, it's not going to look very good. yeah. so we're starting on the wall, bringing a straight line right through this room. if it's off a little on the outside wall, the cabinets are going to cover it up. good, okay. so we've got the rosin paper down for a release, and we've got radiant heat down below as well. right, that's what these lines are for. we do not want to put a staple through the tubing. and i guess we'll start laying this out? yeah, lay some pieces out and make sure the joints are staggered. and the idea is to drive these in using the mallet that comes with our nailer getting the joints together at the end and as tight as possible

before we nail it. okay, we nail these about every 12 to 16 inches, and i'm using an 1 1/2 inch staple. now, we started installing the floor along this wall, so when we nailed it it just went up against the baseboard, it didn't move. but out here there's nothing to stop the floor from moving when you nail it so we installed this temporary cleat and now it's time to take that off.

now, with the temporary cleats removed we can start to lay the floor, and we want to go with the tongue forward so we can nail through that tongue. however, we have groove against groove, so what i did is i ripped up some splines made out of some scrap maple flooring and they'll just fit in the groove, and what they do is they actually create another tongue and we'll do that down the line. i've got one here with some glue on it. i'll just stick that in. norm: a few staples in the spline, and then we'll continue laying the floor just as we did before. all right, well, i'm running the floor a little bit over this vent. i'll trim it out when we finish laying the entire floor. but, you know,

we've got enough of this down now that we're starting to get a sense of how it feels in this house. it's pre-finished, it's nice and bright so it's going to reflect a lot of light. kevin: and this is the final look so we don't get a second chance to go over this floor. no sander's coming on after this or polyurethane so we've got to protect it 'cause it's a busy job site, and tommy actually picked up a big roll of this cardboard and as soon as the floor's down we'll put this over it and make sure it doesn't get scratched up. all right. 'course, the first thing is we got to finish the floor. let's get going. kevin: tommy i like to see it. you have been busy up here, huh? yes, i have. got the second length of railing put together. not too bad, huh? no, these go together real easy. and this is just going to sit on this tab down here? yep. you in? yep, let me just cinch it up.

okay, there you go. okay, i'm all set on this end, thanks. all right, that's nice and tight. our balusters are in place. now, this is the cap. we made it out of cellular pvc and it's nice and wide to cover our shingles on each side. now, for the railing cap on the other side, we've made this piece. now, it looks nice and thick but it's actually two pieces glued together. on this one, we made a dado in the middle to accept our balusters and a place for our posts, so when we drop this on, it will hold everything into position. beautiful, and we can screw right up from the bottom of the balusters into this, and how do we fasten the corners, tommy? in the corner here i have to cut a couple of grooves for a domino to put into there and then we'll glue it into place. all right, so let's take this out of the way so i can get the machine in there. now, i have two reference points that i've marked on the top cap here that will match the end of the railing cap that's going here. all i do

is line 'em up and cut it. okay, let's bring that one in. let me glue up the end first. the epoxy that we're using is actually a two-part epoxy and this is a fast-set so it takes about five minutes for it to set up. i slide in the domino into the wet glue. now we've got to pry it into place here. i'll get mine started. yep.

all right, i've got it by. you down all the way? yep. all right, i'm in. push the middle in over the post. there you go. all right, now i'll just screw that down to the post. these screws are designed for the cellular pvc. it comes with a tip. when it drives it into the cellular pvc it makes a hole that we fill with a pvc button. after we get all these edges sanded up, it's going to look like one two-inch piece of wood. which is pretty good considering it's really two pieces of one-inch stock. right. all right, so i heard something about the homeowner not liking the yellow that's on the house for the shingles here, about maybe too much

sunlight being reflected back in the bedroom? right, but they really like this gray primer that's on the shingles so i thought what we would do is we would actually use this weathering stain. it's gray, and over time it'll age out to a nice patina. is that what they mean by "weathering stain"? yeah. so let me show you what it's going to look like. oh, all right, so, not that different from the actual primer color. exactly. all right, well, whatever makes the homeowner happy, right? that's right. you know, there's going to be a lot of nice places in this house, but my guess is is that this roof deck here is probably going to be their favorite. i think you're right. well, until next time, i'm kevin o'connor. and i'm tom silva. for "this old house." kevin: coming up next time on "this old house"... and, tommy you've got a little bit of a modern riff on the wainscot. what are we working on? well, we started right here when we made the doors out of mdf. we then apply these thin strips of 1/4-inch mdf so that we end up right on the seam of the door. oh,

very clever, so we'll never see it, actually, once this is closed and all painted up. exactly, so all we're going to do is tack this in place. norm: that's next time on "this old house." one pair of overalls a few cans of paint. add a dash of doing and mix together. that's a recipe for a kitchen you can't wait to cook in. the home depot is proud to support "this old house" and doers everywhere. ♪ [ wind howling bird squawks ] [ thunder crashes, car alarm blares ] when the unexpected happens, state farm is there to help you get your old house to a better state. proud sponsor of "this old house." [ grunting ] man! what we need is some elbow grease. [ laughs ] yeah, you can -- are you kidding me? gmc -- lending "this old house" a helping hand since 2002.

funded in part by lumber liquidators retailer of hardwood flooring. their wide selection includes bellawood prefinished, bamboo, laminate and vinyl plank flooring. lumber liquidators is proud to sponsor "this old house." kevin: for more "this old house," go to video.pbs.org, where you can watch entire episodes any time. and like us on facebook to see behind-the-scenes photos. this old house magazine the companion to the television series, provides advice from our experts that you've come to know. you can use your credit card to order ten monthly issues for $10. just call... i am a chef; i cook for a living. and i think of pbs as a window to the world. that kind of place where you feel you are part of the story.

i want to be part of every possible world that's out there. that's when things become really amazing. and when you are able to see stories that make you wonder make you think that's what really makes pbs so meaningful. and that's the kind of tv we need to be supporting today. this old house books, including "easy upgrades: kitchens," are available in bookstores nationwide. "easy upgrades: kitchens" -- featuring more than 200 pages of kitchen before-and-afters including photos, tips and advice from the experts at "this old house."

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